The Psychopath

Not all psychopaths set out to be murderers, but statistically speaking there is a high potential for them to act outside of the laws of a society because they do not see it to be in their interest to abide by such laws.

In order to understand the general concept of the psychopath, we must first step back and examine and define the label “psychopath” and learn of its origins. The word psychopath can be broken down to its Greek roots: Psico-pathos, which means mind suffering. A psychopathic person must then be seen as someone who is restricted and victimized by the very physical nature of his or her mind. They do not see anything wrong with their behavior but rather view the killings, the deceit, and the manipulation of others as the good. The phrase la folie raisonnante is used to describe a person that understands the unreasonableness of their actions but goes through with them anyways. This relates to the psychopath in that although he understands that his actions have the potential to cause harm to another human being, he simply does not care. A psychopath is capable of doing anything to get their way to the degree that they display no signs of remorse. To them, codes of conduct and honor are just limitations other people set for themselves which make them all the more vulnerable to become the subject of manipulation by the psychopath. They have mastery over deceptive behavior and can easily disguise themselves as what we deem to be normal individuals. Psychopaths display behavior, which is contrary to the idea of a community.

In a community, the individuals are able to benefit from one another in such a way as to further develop their own virtues so as to create more opportunities to benefit the community in the future and improve the overall quality of life. Psychopaths display antisocial behavior, which is the opposite of enlightened self-interest. They do not see themselves as a part of society, but rather apart. Their ability to interpret emotions is not dull, however. They are able to dissect emotions in a purely analytical manner in order to execute a course of action that is immediately beneficial to them. A psychopath does not feel the same emotions we do, nor does he respond the same way we would under certain circumstances, and in a rather shallow sense, their ability to cope with threats outmaneuvers our own.

But the psychopath cannot be necessarily considered evil, for his ability to empathize with his fellow man was not made present at the time of his conception. Due to the fact that a psychopath is reactive and not responsive, for there exists a distinct difference, he will only do what is good for him because he cannot understand the concept of human dignity. As much as we would like to do so, we cannot integrate the psychopath into our community for the nature of his mind will surely cause great havoc. They are the most dependent members of society because, like infants, they require a mother body to attach themselves to so as to extract nutrients from it to ensure their own survival. Murder is bad because it strips a person of their rights because they no longer have an opportunity to change their ways, and destroying the potential for good is evil. But clearly this specific group of people is physically incapable of thinking in any way that involves any form of sacrafice on their part and since the potential for good is not there… they should all just be murdered, right? Or perhaps there is more to this issue than meets the eye…

My question to you, the reader, is this: What should be done about psychopaths? Or, should anything be done about them at all? Explain your answer and consider the following statement and questions as part of the reasoning process you use to arrive to your answer.

As my good friend Mr. Giglio has told me before: We as humans try to control others so that they may do the good, but controlling them shows that we fear them because if we trusted them, we would not try to control them and if we force a person to do the good, they will not learn from it. They must come to the realization that they have a responsibility to do good on their own because people have their own will. All we can do for people is provide them with as much information as possible and what they choose to do with it is up to them.

Are psychopaths human?

Are psychopaths people?

Can psychopaths be held accountable for their actions?

Is there a distinction between a person and a human? If so what is (are) it (they)?

What does it mean to be a human?

Is killing a person a violation of their rights, even if they committed a heinous crime?

Just because a solution, such as killing them, is fast, does that necessarily make it a good solution?

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